Passive antennas cannot be steered or reconfigured. Electrically reconfigurable and steerable antennas technology is currently under development. One means currently used to reconfigure steerable antennas is optically coupled switches. To maintain steady-state antenna configurations, each optically coupled switch must be held in its present state. The problem with current optically coupled switch systems and methods is that to hold a switch in its present state, a number of optical light sources must remain on for the duration of the steady-state antenna configuration. For example, a full antenna element array may include 800 optically controlled switches. Each switch might be controlled by a typical VCSEL light source that draws up to 45 mW to maintain a single optical switch in an off-state. For an antenna configuration requiring 400 elements the total power consumption required to maintain the remaining 400 elements in an off-state would be 18 watts. This level of power consumption is excessive for many applications with limited power resources, or where heat accumulation is of concern. For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for low power switching and configuration state techniques for a reconfigurable antenna.